Will Walmart Be the Ringleader in Bringing More Manufacturing Back to US?

Walmart announced that it will buy an additional $50 billion in U.S. products over the next 10 years.

That’s big news; not only because of the dollars but mostly because of the trend.

You might remember that RFID technology soared mostly due to Walmart’s insistence that its suppliers used it. The same could be said about the company’s sustainability efforts.

The driving force behind their efforts, according to the company, is to create jobs to grow the economy.

But others say that the motive is actually profit.

“The company is simply responding to economics,” says Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). “ Consumers want more made-in-USA choices, and smart observers recognize that this can be a profitable approach.”

However even Paul is hopeful.

“If Walmart’s ‘Made in America’ announcement is real, it’s a game changer,” he adds. “No company drives retailing trends like Walmart. I salute Walmart for stating this commitment and hope other retailers follow suit in sourcing more high-quality products that are made in America.”

AAM supplied a few interesting facts on Walmart that proves just how influential this company is:

World Rank by economy if Walmart were a country: 19th

Total amount of money spent at Walmart every hour of every day: $36,000,000

Discuss this Blog Entry 1

I applaud Walmart for this move, they were a major ringleader in the race to offshore, so too can they lead to re-shore.

However, looking at the numbers, 50 billion over ten years would be 5 billion a year. at 405 billion annual sales this is only 1.2%. I would like to see this number much bigger.

but hey, its a place to start - keep it up walmart.

Maybe they figured out what Henry Ford knew 100 years ago, that you have to have customers able to afford to buy your products, the offshoring of middle class manufacturing jobs and the subsequent stagnation and declines in real wages has been a primary factor in reduced consumer demand for goods and services